Carl Hiaasen, Florida crime satirist and retired columnist, will speak at Tiger Bay event

In books and newspaper columns for decades, Carl Hiaasen has offered up his unvarnished opinions about the state he loves and the characters who make Florida Florida.

Hiaasen, the best-selling author and retired Miami Herald columnist, will be speaking at an event in Daytona Beach on Nov. 9, the day after — it's worth noting — the midterm election.

He will be the featured speaker at the Tiger Bay Club of Volusia County annual meeting. The event starts at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 9, at the Jim W. Henderson Center at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, 600 Clyde Morris Blvd. Dinner is at 6:30 p.m. and Hiaasen's remarks will begin at 7:15 p.m.

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Hiaasen, 69, grew up riding bikes and fishing in the Everglades. He graduated from the University of Florida and by 1976 was hired at the Miami Herald, serving as a metro reporter before moving on to be an investigative reporter. He became a columnist in 1985. It was in the 1980s when he started producing satirical crime novels often inspired by true weird-Florida tales.

Some of the titles include "Tourist Season," "Paradise Screwed," "Bad Monkey" and "Squeeze Me," the Trump-era story of a missing Palm Beach socialite whose body was discovered in the belly of an 18-foot Burmese python.

"There's hardly anything that is in my novels that either hasn't happened or won't happen eventually. And that's the scary part," Hiaasen told the BBC's Stephen Sackur in 2019.

He has also written a series of books for young readers, starting with Newbery Medal-winning "Hoot," from 2002.

In discussing why he remains in Florida despite all of the corruption, overdevelopment and crazy crime he satirizes in his novels, Hiaasen said: "As messed up as this state is, as absolutely screwed up and insane as this state is, I still care about it."

Tickets for non-members are $65 and guests should be registered by Friday at tigerbayvolusia.org. For questions, contact Lorene King at 386-205-8805.

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This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Author Carl Hiaasen featured in Daytona Beach event